Thoth Prince of Cups

Zephyros

Courts are as multi-faceted as real people, with many, many different sides to them. They're probably more complex even than the Majors, because trying to understand them is very much like trying to get to know an actual person. Once you get to know them, though, they're really beautiful and exciting.

For example, the Prince of Cups could have a sharp, witty sense of humor that comes from all that depth and his beautiful mind, but catch him in a bad mood and he'll use that same quality to cut you down fiercely, and would catch you completely off-guard.

All three decans work together to add depth to the character, yet each separate decan shows a different "version" that highlights this or that quality. In the Libran decan, he might use his quick tongue to disarm tense situation while in that of the Sun he might say some kind words disguised as a joke and thus warm everyone's hearts. I don't know this, it's just my own interpretation, but it does demonstrate how a person could have all these different sides to them, with their interaction forming personality.

For a reading you can simplify it... but only to a degree. It still takes a bit of mental gymnastics to work out what a person who's mostly Scorpio with some Libra thrown in is like. Add in the fact that Courts often don't depict actual people... and you're still in a pickle.

Always Wondering

Back home with my books. . .

I checked out Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Page 186 Prince of Cups. It wasn't quite what I remembered and close to what you assumed as well.

DuQuette said:
I have to believe that Crowley had an unpleasant experience with a Prince of Cups. If everyone born between October 13 and November 12 manifested all the dark and chilling qualities Crowley ascribes to this card, the 1/12 of the population of the planet would be melodrama villains. While that may have been true of Princes of Cups Lee Harvey Oswald and Leon Trotsky, there is still great strength and potential in the card.

AW

Owl Tarot

Always Wondering said:
I checked out Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Page 186 Prince of Cups. It wasn't quite what I remembered and close to what you assumed as well.

AW

I loved that quote, this made me love Prince of Cups more and more, especially when I realised how true Lon is in that account. Whatever a great villain needs, this court card has! No kidding! Fortunately, the Yi King kinda saved the day for him as far as the Book of Thoth goes, and he is as neutral as any Court card when you see him from a more detached point of view and watch some of his cons vanish.

John Nada

Aeric said:
I've been studying this card because it's the court decan I fall under. I was surprised at Crowley's description of this court:

"The moral characteristics of the person pictured in this card are subtlety, secret violence, and craft. He is intensely secret, an artist in all his ways. On the surface he appears calm and imperturbie, but this is a mask of the most intense passion. He is on the surface susceptible to external influences, but he accepts them only to transmute them to the advantage of his secret designs. He is thus completely without conscience in the ordinary sense of the word, and is therefore usually distrusted by his neighbours. They feel they do not, and can never, understand him. Thus he inspires unreasonable fear. He is in fact perfectly ruthless. He cares intensely for power, wisdom, and his own aims. He feels no responsibility to others, and although his abilities are so immense, he cannot be relied upon to work in harness."

Wow. Was Crowley jilted by a Cup Prince lover in his lifetime? Was he jealous of artistic success? He has nothing but accusatory comments of deception, selfishness, and ruthlessness. Such people are beyond the understanding of normal people because they cloak themselves in enigma for their own ambitions. He speaks nothing of positives that might result, like the desire to beautify the world through art, or to present alternate perspectives for diversity.

Or could this be strictly that since the Prince is a young king affected by the supremely feminine element of Water, that to Crowley he's a distastefully effeminate person? The same overwhelming negativity isn't given to the Knight of Cups, so I have to wonder: just what was up Aleister's butt about this guy?

I can never quite shake the feeling that in some way Mr Crowley identified heavily with this card.

smw

~laugh~ that tends to cross my mind too. (With the Boleskine neighbours)

smw

Aeric said:
or could this be strictly that since the Prince is a young king affected by the supremely feminine element of Water, that to Crowley he's a distastefully effeminate person[\QUOTE]

The feminine watery element could suggest Binah the Great Mother of the seas, dark, powerful (fertile) womb imagery relating to the hidden depths of his secret nature.

Thoth Prince of Cups

Zephyros

Always Wondering

Owl Tarot

John Nada

smw

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